Proposals include rental supplements for low-income tenants in Vancouver
Robert Fife
Sun
OTTAWA — The federal government is prepared to spend $2 billion to provide affordable housing to needy families, Housing Minister Joe Fontana says.
The help would include rental supplements in high-priced cities such as Toronto and Vancouver.
Fontana said Ottawa already has $500 million of untapped housing money and the Feb. 23 budget will commit another $1.5 billion over the next five years to help 1.7 million Canadians who lack affordable housing.
Details of the spending are expected to be unveiled in the budget.
Fontana said the Liberal government’s goal is to lift people out of poverty and enable them to support their families.
“There are a lot of people at risk of becoming homeless. Why? Because they are paying 40 per cent to 50 per cent of their income toward housing,” he said in an interview. “We want to be partners with the provinces and communities to build individual dignity.”
At the request of the provinces, Fontana said cabinet agreed to make the $2-billion program more flexible to meet specific housing needs in every province and territory.
Under the new terms, provinces can tap into federal funds that have been earmarked for housing construction to supplement rents in cities and towns where vacancy rates are high but the rents are too expensive.
“In Vancouver, you can’t find a place less than $1,100 or $1,200. The same can be said for Ontario,” he said. “Now for an average of $300 or $400 a month, I am going to turn that $1,200 apartment into a $700 apartment and you know that is going to allow thousands of people on the waiting list for housing to be able to be housed very, very quickly.”
In Ontario, rental supplements will largely benefit poorer families in Toronto, Hamilton, London and Windsor, as well as some cities in northern Ontario.
Although rental supplements will also be available to people in Vancouver, Fontana said the city actually needs a supply of new housing, as does Montreal. The government will now pay $75,000 per new housing unit to be matched by the provinces, up $50,000 per unit from 2001.
Calgary and Edmonton have vacancy rates of about two per cent, and Fontana said those cities want federal funds to be used for new housing but also for some rental supplements.
“Every community is different so we need to develop a flexible tool box so that . . . it is a bottom-up approach and not a top-down approach as if Ottawa knows how to solve everybody’s housing challenges,” he said.
Fontana said the Atlantic provinces want federal matching funds to encourage home ownership so Ottawa is prepared to offer zero down purchases and will also pay to convert buildings into rental apartments.
However, Fontana said he is opposed to building public housing projects for low-income Canadians because they often become ghettos and reinforce the cycle of poverty. Social housing policy should place needy families in mixed communities where there are greater opportunities to succeed, he said.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
